Wichita eagle., 1887-05-31
WRITTEN ON HIS KNEE.
HOW ABRAHAM LINCOLN COMPOSED
HIS GETTYSBURG GRAFTON.
practically an ExtemporaneOus Compo-
sition," Says Ex-Congressman Edward
McPherson-Writing Out the Ce1e-
brated Grafton in q Railroad Car.

II saw one of the most splendid of compo-
sitions in the English tongue written" said
ex- Congressman Edward Mcpherson, while
chatting about some of his recollections OF
Lincoln recently. II believe that it is admit
ted now by scholars that for sublimity OF
thought, simplicity and yet elegance Of ex-
preston, lucidity and purity Of diction, Mr..
Lincoln's brief Grafton at the dedication Of
the National cemetery at Gettysburg takes
place with the loftiest specimen Of oratory.
Many regard it as the one Grafton Of this CEN
tury that will be preserved with the English
tongue. Yet Mr.. Lincoln wrote it on bis
knee in railroad car. It was practically an
extemporaneous composition; that is, in the
sense that it was wholly unprecedented. He
simply committed to paper the thought that
was uppermost in his mind, and he had no
idea whatever that he had written nything
more than passing thought in the event that
he was to assist in commemorating.
II represented the Gettysburg district in
congress at the time Of the battle and at the
dedication Of the cemetery Mr.. Lincoln was
my guest. He was not sure that be could be
present when he was first asked, but said that
he should go to Gettysburg if possible. think
he was not prepared to say positively that he
would go until very few hours before the
time set for leaving Washington. So he could
not have given any thought to the Grafton
before. / was his seat mate in the car, and
though he talked pleasantly, and spoke of the
country through which we were passing, yet
l thought he was laboring with one of those
spells Of profound melancholy with which he
was at times afflicted. He spoke of Mr.. Ev-
erett, who was to deliver the chief GRAFTON, and
said that Everett ought to be at his best.
knew that Mr. Everett had given even more
than his usual care in preparing this Grafton,
and looked upon his work as q masterpiece,
and / believe told Mr.. Lincoln SO, and he
said that the theme was great enough to IN
spire such an orator as Everett to his best
WRITING II OUT.
"Mr. Lincoln, think. had not thought Of
saying anything himself, but told him that
lac would be expected to make few remarks,
for it would not be permitted him to be silent.
He sat for some moments absorbed in thought,
and at last began to feel in his pockets, as If
for loose paper. l asked him if he wanted
paper and pencil, and he said, Yes, scrap OF
paper and opened my valise and gave him
two or three sheets of note paper. He drew
up his long knees, and, putting book on
them, wrote, jotting down, as l supposed, a
few heads or suggestions He wrote right
along, without hesitation or erasure, and
filled one page and part Of another. Then
he folded it up and put it in his pocket, sim
ply saying that he had set down a few lines
that had occurred to him to say.
"At the cemetery, at the proper time, he
arose, put on his spectacles and drew these
sheets from his pocket. I do not think he
had looked at them again after writing them
in the cars, and in a low voice, which could
be heard but few feet away from tho stage,
he read those splendid lines. The few who
heard him We're most profoundly impressed,
but upon the vast throng who saw him the
Grafton made no impression whatever, be-
cause few heard it. No proper report Of the
oration was made, and Mr.. Lincoln crumpled
the manuscript up and would very likely
have thrown it away if L had not asked him
for it. 1t was not until it had been printed
in newspaper and then widely copied that
its wonderful beauty, both in thought and
literary workmanship, was recognized, and
Mr.. Lincoln was very much surprised to learn
that scholars were quoting it as the best
model of pure English and true eloquence the
language had furnished, at least in America"
GREATLY GRATIFIED.
There is 10 doubt, according to Mr.. Nc
Pherson and others who knew Lincoln well,
that he was greatly gratified with the evi-
dence that he received in the last years of his
life that scholars and cultivated writers were
paying the highest tributoto his charms as a
writer of English. But he was even more
surprised at it, He knew that cultivated
men, even afte his debates with Douglas, and
after his first inaugural, were Of opinion that
he was utterly without other literary powers
than those of a good stump speaker. He was
believed to be a man of strong character but
wholly without literary polish and it was
generally believed that such polish as his
greatest speeches, such as that delivered in
Cooper institute in the winter of 1860 re-
vealed, was the work of some cultivated
friends or some skillful secretaries. He had
advanced far in his first term before his
literary abilities began to be admitted by
scholars, but his second inaugural, very
hastily written composition, and the Gettys-
burg oration brought the long delayed
tributes.
One of his historians points out that long
before Mr. Lincoln had more than local re-
pute he had given proof of great Y terary
abilities His historian quotes Lincoln'S
speech while III congress in 1913 on the sub
ject of the Mexican war, and says: "With
this speech on record, it is strange that the
genuine literary abilities of the man were SO
long and persistently ignored by literary peo-
pie There were men who voted for him for
the presidency more than twelve years after
ward-twelve years Of culture and develop
ment to him-who were surprised TO find his
messages grammatically constructed, and who
suspected the Intervention of a secretary
whenever any touch of elegance appeared in
his writings" Mr.. Mcpherson says that there
were men of cultivation who seemed dunn
founded when some of Mr.. Lincoln's speeches
were given to them TO read to refute their as
sertion that lie was an illiterate boor, and
some of these could not believe that Mr.. Lin |
coin could or did write these speoches.-New |
York Sun.
Outwits tho Autograph Fiend. |
Tho eli fr,ra Of ha ~